The Junia Project

Advocating for Women's Equality in the Church and Home

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Who was Junia?
  • Contact Us
  • Resources

Is God Male?

November 9, 2017 by Patrick Franklin

When I teach about the Trinity in my introductory theology class, the topic of God and gender often comes up. “Is God male?” Let’s think about that.

The Bible often refers to God with masculine personal pronouns. Following this, Christians usually say “He,” “Him, “His,” and “Himself,” when referring to God. Trinitarian language is predominately masculine (“Father” and “Son”) though “Holy Spirit” is more elusive. Many popular Christian books celebrate the more masculine qualities of God (especially books for men and books on ‘leadership’): God is a hero, a conqueror, a warrior, a triumphant king, and so forth.

Even so, I would be extremely hesitant about saying that God IS male; in fact, I would push further to argue that such a notion applied to God, absolutely and without qualification, is both false and misleading.

Filed Under: Difficult Passages, masculinity Tagged With: feminine side of God, masculinity, Patrick Franklin

Manhood & Masculinity: 3 Great Studies for Groups

November 4, 2016 by Gail Wallace

“I’m looking for book recommendations that are egalitarian friendly and address the subjects of manhood and masculinity. I can’t find anything and our men’s ministry leaders are asking me. Please help!! Thank you!!” B.
An interesting thing happened on the way to writing this post. Since I am not a man, I asked eight men for book suggestions and got back ZERO recommendations. Not because they don’t care about the topic, but because 1) they were not aware of any resources on this, or 2) because there has not been much interest in studying “biblical manhood” in their circles. ALL of them told me they were very interested in anything we could find! It is encouraging that manhood and masculinity are not “hot topics” in church circles that support the shared leadership of men and women in ministry and socials contexts. But there is still a need to provide resources for churches that push back against the harmful “authentic manhood” rhetoric that is popular in some Christian circles today. Here are three books that would work well for individual or group study and are written from an egalitarian perspective.

Filed Under: masculinity, Women and Society Tagged With: Carolyn Custis James, Gail Wallace, Gareth Brandt, Malestrom, Man Enough, masculinity, Nate Pyle

Malestrom: Manhood Swept Into The Currents Of A Changing World (Review & Giveaway)

May 29, 2015 by Dorothy Greco

In her new book Malestrom: Manhood Swept Into The Currents Of A Changing World, Carolyn Custis James demonstrates why she is one of the most compelling theologians of the twenty-first century. With the authority and unction of a true prophet, she not only identifies one of the major issues of our day—a fallen idea of maleness—but offers biblically grounded insight for how this curse can be undone.

James explains her astute word-play-title and the premise of the book:

The malestrom is the particular ways in which the fall impacts the male of the human species—causing a man to lose himself, his identity and purpose as a man, and above all else to lose sight of God’s original vision for his sons.

We don’t have to look far to find evidence of this malestrom.

Filed Under: gender roles, masculinity Tagged With: Carolyn Custis James, Dorothy Greco, Malestrom, masculinity

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?

Categories

Archives

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG

Enter Your Email

Copyright © 2021 · Outreach Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in